DIGITALISATION OF AGRICULTURE
From RiSe: “Digitalization of agriculture is taking the next step after precision farming by linking different systems with IoT (Internet of Things) and analysing data with AI (artificial intelligence). This is often referred to as Smart farming or Farming 4.0. Connection and sharing of data is a key factor for success.”
From the EU (not a definition, but the opening sentence on their page about digitalisation of agriculture): “From artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G, the latest technologies can offer invaluable support for farmers and agribusinesses.”
From the OECD: “Digitalisation is the defining technological transformation of this era, and, as in other sectors, it will have important impacts on agriculture. Digitalisation refers to the adoption of information communication technologies, including the Internet, mobile technologies and devices, as well as data analytics, to improve the generation, collection, exchange, aggregation, combination, analysis, access, searchability and presentation of digital content, including for the development of services and applications.”
So, if agricultural management is about capturing data, managing data, analysing data, reporting data, and reacting to data, then digital agriculture is about more, quicker, and easier data for decision making. It is IoT, AI, Big Data, Data standards, Connectivity, Models, Robots, etc. It’s improved or even real-time decisions support, and ultimately, it is automation.
CHALLENGES WITH DIGITALISATION OF AGRICULTURE
From the OECD: “… Common barriers to adoption include costs (up-front investment and recurring maintenance expenses), relevance and limited use cases, user-friendliness, high operator skill requirements, mistrust of algorithms, and technological risk. National governments have an important role in addressing bottlenecks to adoption, such as by ensuring better information about costs and benefits of various technologies (including intangible benefits such as quality of life improvements); investing in human capital; ensuring appropriate incentives for innovation; serving as knowledge brokers and facilitators of data-sharing to spur inclusive, secure and representative data ecosystems; and promoting competitive markets.”
A common issue that has come up in projects, and is noted in the OCED list of challenges, is getting the machines to talk easily with each other. In particular, standadisation of metrics and nomeculature. There are some companies and organisations working on this issue:
- AgGateway: working to improve interoperable of digital systems in agriculture, largely through data standardisation (a good podcast about them) but also through the maintance of the ADAPT data model.
- Agrirouter: the European AgGateway.
- Agronod: the Swedish AgGateway, with focus on reporting within the Swedish agriculture sector.
DIGITAL RATING
A digital rating on a data collection process is basically a summary of how automated it is. At the lower end is a data collection process that uses pens and paper and lots of people and time. At the higher end is data collection that is basically instantaneous and has no human interaction in the actual instance (of course a human (?) has built the system).
A key goal of digitalisation of agriculture is to increase digital ratings.
ME AND DIGITALISATION OF AGRICULTURE
My work in Digitalisation of Agriculture is all through Hushållningssällskapet Skåne. This includes the role of monitoring this field within Sweden and the wider world. My aim is to keep the strategy and action plan for this focus area up to date at all time. This means a lot of time scanning publications and attending event, keeping things catalogued and developing project ideas.
I believe that Sweden should aim for highly digital agriculture. This will primarily be achieved through technology transfer, that is, the import of digital technology. Sweden has a well educated population and fantastic digital infrastructure, and thus there are no digital agricultural technologies that are beyond our capabilities. Sweden is also an innovative society with good innovation systems, and as such innovators in digital agricultural technologies should be able to find the support they need. It is in the space where innovations spread that I believe my role is. I do not believe that Sweden needs a particular system or push for invention of digital agricultural technologies, but we should have people who understand this space and can represent Swedish agriculture within it.
I see the role of HS Skåne, and thus my role, to contribute to the national betterment in this area. We follow the government’s strategy, are involved in the key networks, and contribute to the understanding and influencing the use of digital tools. We can contribute to the development of digital tools, but this is secondary. HS Skåne does offer some digital tools thought markkartering.se, but we also have the role of providing unbiased advice in the area. HS Skåne has three focus areas that cover digital agriculture: Digitalisation of Agriculture, Forecasting, and Precision Agriculture. The latter two can be seen as specific areas within Digitalisation of Agriculture, which have particular meaning within agriculture.
CURRENT PROJECTS
HS014: Kunskapsnav för jordbrukets digitalisering, Omvärldsbevakning – Practical use of satellites
HS018: Agtech Sweden, Soil moisture, sensors and satellites.
HS020: Rymdstyrelsen Skörde Prognos project [Swedish National Space Agency Yield Forecasting project]
COMPLETED PROJECTS
HS012: Kunskapsnav för jordbrukets digitalisering, Omvärldsbevakning – Useable yield mapping
HS013: Kunskapsnav för jordbrukets digitalisering, Omvärldsbevakning – Digital twins in agriculture
